*WEEKLY CHURCH NEWS NOTES
Pastor Dale Morgan
July 8, 2007
The Weekly Church News Notes is designed for use in churches.
*
COUNCIL OF EUROPE REPORT WARNS ABOUT "CREATIONIST FUNDAMENTALISTS"
*
A recent report drawn up by the
Council of Europe, which is the continent's main human rights body,
warns strongly of "creationist fundamentalists" and calls them
dangerous religious extremists who "could become a threat to human
rights" ("Secularist Europe Silences Pro-Lifers and Creationists,"
Brusssels Journal, June 23, 2007). The report claims that creationism
"was for a long time an almost exclusively American phenomenon,"
which is pure nonsense. There are countless Christians throughout the
world who believe the Bible's account of creation. The report
identifies "creationist theories" with "all manner of fundamentalism
and extremism, synonymous with attacks of utmost virulence on human
rights." The "extremism" this report should be worried about is the
Islamic extremism that aims to put all of European under the heel of
Islamic law. There is no evidence that creationists have attacked
anyone's human rights or injured anyone in any way, but jihadist
Muslims have done all of that. The report says the creationists have
a "total rejection of science," but in fact creationists simply
refuse to worship science as infallible, knowing how often it has
proven itself to be wrong and changed its opinions. Creationists
don't reject science; they reject "science falsely so called" (1
Timothy 6:20). The Council of Europe report in question was to be
voted on Monday, June 25, with the objective of banning creationist
and intelligent design views from schools in Europe, but the
resolution was sent back to committee for "further study." Deputies
from east European countries, who voted against approving the report,
recalled with no fondness that "Darwinian evolution was a favorite
theory of their former communist rulers." The very fact that such a
report could be written and given any serious consideration at all
demonstrates the very real danger to freedom of speech and religion
in Europe today. "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy
trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of
science falsely so called: Which some professing have erred
concerning the faith. Grace be with thee" (1 Timothy 6:20-21).
*
POPES CALL FOR "UNIVERSAL OWNERSHIP OF GOODS" *
Since the late 19th century the Roman Catholic popes
have been calling for the redistribution of wealth along
socialist-communistic lines. This call began with Leo XIII
(1878-1903) and has been repeated by Pius XI (1922-39), John XXIII
(1958-63), Paul VI (1963-78), John Paul II (1978-2006), and by the
current Pope Benedict XVI. John Paul II said, "Private property, in
fact, is under a 'social mortgage,' which means that it has an
intrinsically social function, based upon and justified by the
principle of the universal destination of goods" (Encyclical,
"Solticitudo Rei Socialis," Sect. 42). Benedict XVI confirmed this
principle in his encyclical entitled "God Is Love," claiming that a
share of the community's goods is to be guaranteed to each person.
The Vatican II Council in the 1960s maintained the same principle:
"If one is in extreme necessity, he has the right to procure for
himself what he needs out of the riches of others" ("Gaudium et
Spes," Vatican Council II Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents,
para. 69). The Catholic Church has taught the citizens of Mexico and
elsewhere that they can enter wealthy countries illegally to obtain
their "rightful" share of the wealth and that they should be rewarded
for doing so. The Bible, on the other hand, teaches that man is
obligated before God to work by the sweat of his brow and that he is
worthy of his hire and has the right to keep the fruit of his labor
and is then obligated to God to use it responsibly and
compassionately, and that to take from another individual forcefully
is the sin of stealing and to lust after something that belongs to
another is the sin of covetousness. The Ten Commandments thus assume
the right to private ownership of property. God's Word teaches that
men should have compassion upon the needy, but that compassion is to
be a matter of free will. Under the Law of Moses if a poor man stole
because he was hungry, he was not therein justified. He was to
restore seven-fold and if he was unable to make restitution he was to
be sold for his theft (Prov. 6:30-31; Exodus 22:3). God's Word also
says that he that does not work should not eat, and that those who
live in moral debauchery are to be punished and not rewarded. The
right to forcefully "redistribute wealth" is a right that governments
have taken them themselves in these last days in preparation for the
rise of the antichrist, and the government does not use its power to
redistribute wealth for godly purposes but often to reward sloth and
dissolution. Socialists use the government to do their alleged good
deeds with other people's money. The Vatican, by the way, is
hypocritical in this as in most things. If "needy" mobs were to force
their way into St. Peter's and take all of the gold and silver and
rare art, the pope would cry foul theft! For more on this see "Papal
Promotion of Collective Ownership and Theft," by former Catholic
priest Richard Bennett,
http://www.bereanbeacon.org/Papal_Economics.pdf (though we disagree
fervently with his idea that the Catholic Church "went apostate at
the Council of Trent in 1546").
*BAGHDAD CHRISTIANS TERRORIZED, FLEEING *
The following is excerpted from a report in the Jewish World Review,
June 14, 2007, entitled "Is Islam Incompatible with Democracy,
Decency?" The report uses the term "Christian" to describe any type
of Christian, and the groups that predominate in that part of the
world are Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox: "An al-Qaida-affiliated
insurgent group is giving Christians in Baghdad a stark set of
options: Convert to Islam, marry your daughters to our fighters, pay
an Islamic tax or leave with only the clothes on your back. A U.S.
military official said American force became aware of the threats
only last month and now have erected barriers around the largest
Christian enclave in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood in an effort to
protect its residents. Christians in Baghdad refuse to discuss the
threats for fear of retribution. But in Syria, where thousands of
Iraqi Christians have fled, tales abound of families that were killed
or driven from their homes because they either refused or couldn't
afford to pay the jizya, a tax usually levied on non-Muslim men of
military age ... Iraq long had been home to thriving Christian
communities, primarily Assyrians and Chaldean Catholics, who trace
their roots to ancient Mesopotamia. Some of Saddam Hussein's closest
confidants were Christian, including his foreign minister, Tarik
Aziz. Christian communities were prominent in many major Iraqi
cities, including Mosul in the north and Basra in the south. Baghdad
had major Christian enclaves in the central neighborhood of Karada,
the eastern mostly Shiite neighborhood of New Baghdad and nearby
al-Ghadir and the notorious Sunni-dominated Doura in the capital's
south. As Iraq has descended into chaos, however, many Christians
have fled, joining an estimated 2.2 million exiles, including 1.4
million Iraqis now estimated to be living in Syria. ... A Christian
Iraqi legislator estimated Tuesday that a half-million Christians
have fled Iraq since 2004."
*VINEYARD CHURCHES ON THE ENVIRONMENTALIST BANDWAGON *
Vineyard churches have jumped on the environmentalist
bandwagon with both feet. A Tending the Garden conference held last
July at the Vineyard church in Boise, Idaho, focused on
"environmental stewardship." Speakers included Calvin DeWitt,
co-founder of the Evangelical Environmental Network, and Peter Illyn,
director of Restoring Eden. Tri Robinson, senior pastor of the
Vineyard church at Boise, is the author of "Saving God's Green
Earth." Also speaking at the conference was Bert Waggoner, national
director of the Association of Vineyard Churches. The Vineyard
churches are also at the forefront of rock worship and produce much
of the music used in interdenominational contemporary praise. The
Lord Jesus Christ emphasized the Great Commission in Matthew 28, Mark
16, Luke 24, John 20, and Acts 1, and there is not a hint in this
Commission about environmental stewardship. The book of Acts records
the ministries of the Lord's apostles, and their concern was for the
saving of souls rather than the saving of the earth. What incredible
spiritual blindness has taken over modern "evangelicalism"!
*NEW R-RATED CHRISTIAN MEN'S MOVEMENT *
The following is from Foundation magazine, January-March 2007: "Called
GodMen, the movement attempts to 'create a worship place for men that
looks nothing like church,' in which men can come together and
discuss their questions and struggles in a safe environment without
being judged or feeling condemned. Hosted by comedian, author and
actor Brad Stein, each GodMen event, according to promotional
material, is 'more powerful, raw, and real than any other men's
event; a place to explore issues like fear, isolation, numbness,
aimlessness, pornography, passivity and more; an opportunity to
discuss sensitive subjects without using sugar coated or safe church
language; a chance to celebrate the masculine spirit.' The GodMen
website explains the difference between GodMen and Promise Keepers,
an alternative movement for men: 'We're very different. We include
elements that are deemed dangerous and even wrong by traditional
standards.' Another difference between GodMen and Promise Keepers is
the age-restricted nature of GodMen. All GodMen events are restricted
to men at least 15 years old (some require a 17-year age limit) due
to the explicit and mature subject matter often discussed. In 2007,
GodMen events are scheduled to convene in six U.S. cities and include
preachers, comedians, rock bands, illusionists and authors."
*THE LAW OF THY MOTHER
*
"My son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy
mother"
(Proverbs 6:20). Both the father's and the mother's law is to be
heeded. Both parents should be involved in the training of children,
and they should be in harmony before the children as far as
instruction and discipline, and both should be honored. Mothers
should not be despised, neither by children nor by fathers nor by
churches. They have an important role in the training of the next
generation. Timothy's mother and grandmother trained him in the
Scriptures (2 Tim. 1:5; 3:15). The mother is mentioned 14 times in
Proverbs, and the last chapter concludes with a mother's prophecy
(Prov. 31:1). Children that do not honor their mothers and keep their
Bible-based laws are foolish children. It is the foolish son who
despises his mother (Prov. 15:20) and causes her heaviness (Prov.
10:1) and chases her away (Prov. 19:26) and curses her (Prov. 20:20)
and robs her (Prov. 28:24) and does not bless her (Prov. 30:11). The
mother is not to be despised even when she is old (Prov. 23:22), and
those who despise their mothers will be judged (Prov. 30:17). "When
the mother was grown old we may suppose the children to be grown up;
but let them not think themselves past being taught, even by her, but
rather respect her the more for the multitude of her years and the
wisdom which they teach. Scornful and insolent young men and women
will make a jest, it may be, of the good advice of an aged mother,
and think themselves not concerned to heed what an old woman says;
but such will have a great deal to answer for another day, not only
as having set at nought good counsel, but as having slighted and
grieved a good mother" (Matthew Henry).
CONCLUSION: Friends in Christ, do not be discouraged by any of this.
It is God's will that we know the times (1 Ch. 12:32; Mat. 16:3) and
that we be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. These things
remind us that the hour is very late, and we need to be ready for the
coming of the Lord. Are you sure that you are born again? Are you
living for Christ day by day? "And that, knowing the time, that now
it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation
nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at
hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put
on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in
rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in
strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Rom.
13:11-14).